The Trump administration is rumored to be toying with the idea of eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts. Who stands to lose the most if rumor becomes reality and the Republican-controlled Congress pulls the plug on NEA funding? In an op-ed on the Artsy blog, Isaac Kaplan says it would be the American people.

Climate Change

With the Trump administration determined to pursue "a ‘control-alt-delete’ strategy — control the scientists in the federal agencies, alter science-based policies to fit their narrow ideological agenda, and delete scientific information from government websites," is philanthrocapitalism our best hope for finding solutions to a warming planet? Corinna Vali reports for the McGill International Review.

Can shareholder advocates really move the needle on the issue of climate change? Nonprofit Chronicles blogger Marc Gunther weighs in with a tough but balanced assessment.

Diversity

In a post on the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog, Alyse d'Amico and Leaha Wynn reflect on what the organization has done, and is doing, right in the area of diversity and inclusion.

Education

"Nearly sixty-three years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case kick-started racial integration in schools — and six decades after a group of African-American students had to be escorted by federal troops as they desegregated Little Rock’s Central High School — students nationwide are taught by an overwhelmingly white workforce," write Greg Toppo and Mark Nichols in USA Today. "And the racial mismatch, in many places, is getting worse."

Environment

As part of its ongoing efforts to build the new field of resilience, the Rockefeller Foundation has launched Zilient, a global community of scholars and practitioners dedicated to building "the capacity of individuals, communities, and systems to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of stress and shocks."

Troublesome board member? Social Velocity's Nell Edgington has some good advice on how to address the situation.

Healthcare

"Legislative attacks on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicare would take coverage away from tens of millions of Americans, cut $1 trillion from state funds for Medicaid, replace Medicare with a limited voucher for private insurance and raise the cost of health coverage for almost everyone," writes Richard Kirsch, formerly the national campaign manager for Health Care for American Now, on the NCRP blog. What can foundations do to help prevent that from happening? Kirsch has some ideas.

Immigration

In a statement on the foundation's website, Lumina Foundation president Jaime Merisotis explains why the recent executive order calling for a halt on immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations is a step back from the values and ideals that define America.

On the foundation's Point blog, Heinz Endowment president Grant Oliphant reminds us that "[n]o people in the history of the world have ever prospered or secured themselves for long by slamming shut the gates of opportunity behind them. All they succeed in doing is closing out the strivers and the dreamers who bring new energy and new ideas, who history has shown time and again swell the ranks of entrepreneurs and inventors and become the real 'job creators' of the future."

The Washington Post's Katie Mettler retells the story of Emma Lazarus, the young, high society New York poet who gave the Statue of Liberty its voice.

As this story from the AP reminds us, America's history with immigration is...complicated.

"Most foundation philanthropy consists of grants...[b]ut there are ways to support worthy causes that can result in not just a positive social return but also a positive financial return, putting money back into our hands to recycle out again and again to other nonprofits that need it." On the Kresge Foundation site, Kimberlee Cornett introduces a new series focused on the foundation's social investing work.

That's it for this week. Got something you'd like to share? Drop us a line at mfn@foundationcenter.org or share it in the comments section below....